This week we began speaking about our families & will continue with our home & family unit throughout the next month. We also worked on our top secret art project for Thanksgiving. We can’t tell you what it is but you will find out soon enough. Our pre-k kids were introduced to the letters/sounds Mm & Nn.

Picture day was a big success. The children were all cooperative & had beautiful smiles! We can’t wait to see all of the pictures! Please note, our photographer will email proofs for you to review & select your favorite poses. You can then place your order with her directly. Price lists were sent home with the photographer’s email, phone number & website. If you have any questions, you can contact her directly. She did indicate that this is a busy time of year for her so it will take a few weeks to review all of the photos & email them. She took quite a few pictures & poses for each child in addition to our class pictures.

The Night Before School Picture Day (Natasha Wing)Families (Shelly Rotner)

Looking Ahead:

Once again we are participating in the Scholastic Pajama Drive. With your help, we have donated more than 75 pairs of pajamas during the last three years to a local shelter for women & children who are victims of domestic abuse as well as Little Flower Children Services. For every pair of pajamas we donate, Scholastic matches the pajamas with a book for the children. Please consider donating to this worthy cause. Pajamas of any size will be accepted through December 14. Thank you.

Reminder:

We are closed Monday, November 12 for Veteran’s Day.

We are closed on Thursday, 11/21 & Friday, 11/22 for Thanksgiving break.

Helpers this week:

Thank you to all of our families who participated in our Halloween party &/or sent in goodies for the children. Tons of fun was had by all & the costumes were fabulous!​

During circle, we discussed our costumes andcategorized them by people, animals or things. We used vocabulary such as more & less as well as most & least when counting the number of costumes in each category.

We are closed on Tuesday, 11/6 for Election Day & Monday, 11/9 for Veterans Day.

Please join us in giving back to the community this Thanksgiving! Let’s see how many families we can feed together! Creative Kids Center has teamed up with Our Place Newspapers to sponsor a food drive. Food pantries are usually at a low this time of year & really need our help. The food drive will run from October 5-November 16. Please place non-perishable food items in the box located at our door at your convenience. Food donations will be delivered to local food pantries. Thank you for your support in making a difference in the lives of our neighbors.

The November Scholastic Book Order will be placed this weekend.

Picture Day is Wednesday, November 7 beginning at 10 a.m. for the morning session. If your child does not attend school on Wednesday but you would like to come in for pictures, please arrive no later than 10 a.m. in order to be included in the class picture. We will take the class picture first, then proceed to individual pictures.

For the afternoon session, class picture will be taken at 12:15 so please arrive on time if you are bringing in your child for pictures.

Picture envelopes were NOT sent home this year. We are using a different photographer who will take 2-3 different poses & send digital proofs from which you can place your order.

​Busy! Busy! Busy! Halloween is on the way & we are busy preparing for our festivities! We had the opportunity to investigate pumpkins this week in our science center. We used our eyes to see the inside & outside of the pumpkin, our hands to feel it & our nose to smell it. We described what we saw, felt & smelled. You can learn about pumpkins at home by looking in your pantry or at the grocery store to find all the food made with pumpkins &/or have a taste test & try a new food made with pumpkin. We will continue with our pumpkin exploration into next week.

We celebrated 2 special birthdays this week! Happy 4th Birthday to Emma! Emma’s mom was our mystery reader on Wednesday. She read us the book Peppa Pig’s Halloween Party. We ate delicious mini cupcakes to celebrate. Thank you to Emma’s mom for joining us!

Happy 2nd birthday to our youngest learner, Colten! Thank you to his family for sending in delicious cupcakes for us to celebrate!

A great big thank you to Colin’s family for donating a bag full of superhero figures for us to use in the classroom. The children have been playing with them with the Legos & are having a blast!

Have you been wondering why you haven’t received too many pieces of artwork coming home? We are creating student portfolios with the many pieces of art our children create. A nice surprise will be awaiting you at the end of the school year. We bet you can’t wait!

Halloween Party Info: Wenesday, 10/31/18. All families are invited to attend. We will have a regular school day. Morning session party from 10:30-11:30. Afternoon session party from 2:00-3:00. A sign-up sheet is located by the front door. If your child does not attend school on Wednesday, please feel free to bring him/her to the party at 10:30 or 2:00, depending on your child's usual session. Costumes are welcome! If you would like to send in treat bags for the children, please make sure it is peanut/tree nut free.

Please join us in giving back to the community this Thanksgiving! Let’s see how many families we can feed together! Creative Kids Center has teamed up with Our Place Newspapers to sponsor a food drive. Food pantries are usually at a low this time of year & really need our help. The food drive will run from October 5-November 16. Please place non-perishable food items in the box located at our door at your convenience. Food donations will be delivered to local food pantries. Thank you for your support in making a difference in the lives of our neighbors.

Reminder:

School picture day is Wednesday, 11/7/18. Additional information will be sent home as soon as it is received from the photographer. We have a new photographer this year who has some great ideas. I’m excited to see what she has in store for us!

November tuition is due on Wednesday, 11/1/18. Late fees will apply according to our handbook policy for tuition not received by 11/10/18. Please pay your tuition in a timely manner. Thank you for your understanding.

For some reason our October Scholastic order was returned to the Scholastic warehouse. I was assured it was re-shipped on 10/26 via expedited delivery & should arrive by Tuesday, 10/30/18. Fingers crossed!

This week was all about fire safety. We had a fabulous time on our field trip to the Holbrook Fire Department. Firefighter Neil taught us how to be safe if there’s a fire. We sat in a real fire engine, wore a fire jacket & helmet & even sprayed water from a fire hose. We left the fire house filled with knowledge about fire safety. During the week, we read books about fire safety & discussed firefighters. Thank you to all of our families who attended the field trip. We hope you enjoyed learning all about fire safety with your children.

We painted a picture of fire with red & yellow paint for our art project this week. Using gift cards/credit cards, we scraped the paint along the paper. The scraping effect created layers of bright color to “light” the fire. When the colors mixed, we discovered a new color. Ask me what color we made!

Songs We Sang:​Haunted House (Learning Station)Monsters Stomp Around the House (The Kiboomers)Halloween Freeze Dance (The Kiboomers); Criss Cross ApplesauceHickey Picky BumblebeeJump Up & Down (transition song)The Goodbye SongGoodbyeDay-O

Our Fall/Halloween party will be held on October 31 from 10:30-11:30 & 2:00-3:00. Family members are invited to attend. A sign-up sheet is posted by our front door.

Please join us in giving back to the community this Thanksgiving! Let’s see how many families we can feed together! Creative Kids Center has teamed up with Our Place Newspapers to sponsor a food drive. Food pantries are usually at a low this time of year & really need our help. The food drive will run from October 5-November 16. Please place non-perishable food items in the box located at our door at your convenience. Food donations will be delivered to local food pantries. Thank you for your support in making a difference in the lives of our neighbors.

​Reminder:

School picture day is Wednesday, 11/7/18. Additional information will be sent home as soon as it is received from the photographer. We have a new photographer this year.

We have been focusing on name recognition since the first day of school by having children move their attendance cards from the “home” side of the attendance chart to the “school” side as well as locating their cubbies labeled with their name & a picture that begins with the 1st letter of their name. The children have also been “signing in” upon arrival. Whether they scribble, trace or write their 1st name, they are exercising their fine motor skills while holding a pencil as they practice “signing in.” Additionally, our art projects the past 2 weeks have included painting the 1st letter of their name then decorating with buttons as well as painting their whole name & also decorating with buttons. Repeated exposure to their names helps them learn name identification as well as the letters in their names. Our 4’s have also been learning the sounds of letters A through F as well as the difference between uppercase & lowercase. Next week will move on to the letters/sounds of Gg & Hh.

We celebrated Elizabeth’s 4th birthday on Wednesday with delicious Entemann’s Pop’ems. Elizabeth also sent home spider rings & stickers for her friends. Thank you to her family for these treats. Happy 4th Birthday, Elizabeth!

Our Fall/Halloween party will be held on October 31. The sign up sheet will be posted outside our classroom door beginning on Monday.

Please join us in giving back to the community this Thanksgiving! Let’s see how many families we can feed together! Creative Kids Center has teamed up with Our Place Newspapers to sponsor a food drive. Food pantries are usually at a low this time of year & really need our help. The food drive will run from October 5-November 16. Please place non-perishable food items in the box located at our door at your convenience. Food donations will be delivered to local food pantries. Thank you for your support in making a difference in the lives of our neighbors.

Reminder:

We are very excited for our field trip on Tuesday, October 16. We are open our usual time for arrival in the morning & afternoon. Please return to the school at 9:15 or 12:45 to drive your child to the firehouse, or you can meet us there at 9:30 or 1:00. The address is 390 Terry Blvd, Holbrook, NY 11741 (631) 588-0099

School picture day is Wednesday, 11/7/18. Additional information will be sent home as soon as it is received from the photographer. We have a new photographer this year. ​

Our first month of school is now behind us. We spent this past month exploring, creating, learning & bonding with new friends. We played musical instruments & will continue to do so every Friday during our weekly Dance Party Fridays. We exercise every day during circle by moving & grooving to various songs before sitting for story time. We completed our 1st process art project by painting circles at the easel, then decorating them using dot markers & adding various circle shapes. We are now using water colors to paint the 1st letter of our names, then decorating with buttons. We will hang the letters on our Chicka Chicka tree in our Pretend Center. Our art projects are usually multi-step processes that take a few weeks to complete. We enjoy being creative & using many different types of materials while exercising our fine motor skills. Using our fine motor (small muscles) skills during various activities prepares us for future writing activities.

This week we celebrated Anthony E.’s 3rd birthday with delicious peanut/tree nut free cupcakes & brownie bites. Anthony’s mother was our mystery reader. She read us one of Anthony’s favorite books, Three Little Dinosaurs. Thank you to Anthony’s family for bringing in the goodies & the little dinosaurs to send home with Anthony’s morning class friends.

We continued to reinforce good behavior with green/red choices. The science/math centers were introduced by reading the book What is a Scientist? by Barbara Lehn. Our children were very excited to explore the sensory table filled with sand & magnetic letters, puzzles, light tables, Magnatiles, sensory bottles, translucent blocks & other materials in these centers. We also welcomed our 2 new friends to school this week: Gianna & Alexis. We are happy to have them join us.

Songs We Sang:

We learned some new songs on Monday that we will continue to sing & dance to for the remainder of October: Haunted House (Learning Station); Monsters Stomp Around the House (The Kiboomers); Halloween Freeze Dance (The Kiboomers).

Our Fall/Halloween party will be held on October 31. More details to follow as well as a sign-up sheet for families who would like to participate.

October Scholastic book orders are due 10/5/18. Thank you for your support.

Please join us in giving back to the community this Thanksgiving! Let’s see how many families we can feed together! Creative Kids Center has teamed up with Our Place Newspapers to sponsor a food drive. Food pantries are usually at a low this time of year & really need our help. The food drive will run from October 5-November 16. Please place non-perishable food items in the box located at our door at your convenience. Food donations will be delivered to local food pantries. Thank you for your support in making a difference in the lives of our neighbors.

Reminder:

​​

No School on Monday, 10/8/18 due to Columbus Day.

Just a reminder that our sessions are 8:30-11:30 & 12:00-3:00. Please remind whoever is dropping off your child that doors open at 8:30 & 12:00. We do not permit early drop-off. Our sessions are 3 hours, where most preschools offer only 2½ hour sessions. Before each session, we are preparing for our day. In between sessions, we are eating lunch. Thank you for your cooperation.

Please remember to turn in the field trip permission slips.

School picture day is Wednesday, 11/7/18. Additional information will be sent home as soon as it is received from the photographer. We have a new photographer this year.

Happy fall & last week of September! We made it through our first full week of school! This month sure flew by. We are looking forward to more fun in October!

This week, we introduced Green & Red Choices in our classroom. Green & Red Choices is a behavior management system, using a positive approach to teach expected behaviors. Green choices are good behaviors, stated in a positive manner. They are the choices we want our children to make such as listen, use kind words & have a calm body. Green is the symbol for go & keep going while red is the symbol for stop.

Green & red choices focus on the choice rather than the child. If a child makes a red choice, a teacher or another student may point it out quietly or simply ask if that’s a green choice. The child can then change the behavior and make a green choice. USING POSITIVE LANGUAGE GOES A LONG WAY! It builds a caring community where students feel loved & safe so they are able to learn & grow!

Green choices (aka expected behaviors) were introduced through books & discussion during circle. We will continue reinforcing green choices via various activities & additional stories throughout the school year. Making green choices can be HARD for our youngsters so we pair a visual support with each behavior. Utilizing this system at home is a great way to help children generalize their newfound skills to other environments. You can find some examples below & refer to them as green or red choices.

Say:Walking feet.Inside voice.Hands to yourself.Let’s work as a team.Use kind words.Put it in the trash/recycle can.Let’s share or trade.Is that a green choice?You look upset. Can I help you?

Instead of:No running.No yelling.No pushing.Stop fighting.Stop saying mean things.Stop throwing it on the ground.Don’t take the toy.Why are you doing that?Stop the tantrum.

Additionally, using the Fundations curriculum, our Pre-K children were introduced to the “Aa” & “Bb” letters/sounds.

Thank you to everyone who ordered books from Scholastic. Our class earns bonus points from every purchase. Some items we have used our bonus points for in the past include 2 table top light boxes, table & 4 chairs for our pretend center, Magnatiles, translucent squares for building on the light table & Pete the Cat floor puzzle. The more bonus points we acquire, the more items we can order for our classroom.

Looking Ahead:

Halloween Party will be held on October 31. More details to follow as well as a sign-up sheet for families who would like to participate.

School picture day is tentatively scheduled for November 7. More info to follow.

Reminder:

Holbrook Fire Department field trip is on 10/16/18. Morning session time is 9:30-11:00. Afternoon session time is 1:00-2:30. Permission slips will be sent home next week.

October Scholastic book orders are due 10/5/18.

Always feel free to speak to any of us about any concerns/issues you might have. We are all in this together & want your child to have the most positive preschool experience possible!

Activities: We continued to practice our daily classroom routine as well as review circle time & center rules. To coincide with the book The Dot & the introduction to our art center, we painted cardboard circles at the easel. When dry, we decorated our circles with dot markers then added various circle shaped materials to reinforce the shape. We also used hula-hoops, round placemats, log slices & bottle caps while working as a team with our peers to design circles & dots.

During circle, we introduced our helper of the day by counting the number of letters in the child’s name, then guessing his/her name by introducing the sound of the 1st letter in the name. The children love when they are able to guess the name of the helper. We also played a sensory game after reading I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More. We used paintbrushes to “paint” various body parts as directions were provided verbally.

​Looking Ahead:

We say goodbye to summer & welcome the official arrival of Fall this Saturday, 9/22/18.

During small group time, we will begin using the Fundations Pre-K curriculum for our Pre-K children to introduce letters, letter-sound relationships & writing skills. Fundations is the curriculum used in the UPK programs in both Sachem & Connetquot School Districts as well as in Sachem grades K-3.

Holbrook Fire Department field trip is on 10/16/18. Morning session time is 9:30-11:30. Afternoon session time is 1:00-3:00. Permission slips with further information will be sent home next week.

Back to School Night has been postponed & will be rescheduled at a later date. I apologize for needing to reschedule. I overlooked a meeting, which resulted in a conflict for me.

Reminder:

Always feel free to speak to any of us about any concerns/issues you might have. We are all in this together & want your child to have the most positive preschool experience possible!

During this short week we continued to adjust to our classroom routine as well as review our circle time rules which include visuals for the following: Circle Time, Quiet Voice, Look, Raise Your Hand & Learn.

Visual strategies are a great tool we use to support & increase receptive & expressive language as well as assist children in knowing what is expected of them. Just as we adults use calendars, grocery lists, & “to do” lists to enhance memory, our children also benefit from visual reminders.

Our circle time always begins by singing a few routine songs to shake out our “sillies” & help us attend to activities. During the course of the school year, the songs change every now & then. This week’s songs included:

We reviewed center expectations for our Pretend Play Center & read the book, ABC of Jobs (Roger Priddy) for ideas on what we can do during pretend play. We also introduced our Block Center by reading the book, Jack the Builder (Stuart J. Murphy). Next week we will introduce our Art Center to coincide with International Dot Day! We are looking forward to creating many fun art projects during the school year! This week we continued painting our birthday crowns, place mats & the 1st page of our portfolios.

We had our 1st school year birthday celebration! Happy 4th Birthday to Salvatore! Thank you to his family for sending in delicious peanut/tree nut free cupcakes for us to celebrate!

For some of our children, the honeymoon appears to be over. While some children experienced anxiety during the first few days of preschool, others have now realized that this is their new routine. Both scenarios are very typical for young children. Here are a few ideas to help out:

Clearly state to your child where you will be & when you will return. It may also be helpful to discuss what will happen when you are reunited.

Maintain a clear good-bye routine. This may include telling your child you are leaving in 3 minutes, a kiss & hug, or a wave from the door. Once you tell your child you are leaving, it is important to follow through. Extending the good-bye with, "Ok just one more kiss, & then I really have to go” tends to heighten anxiety rather than relieve it. Avoid sneaking out, as this seems to encourage children to become less trusting & might make the next drop off day even harder.

I promise you, it is so much harder on us as parents than it actually is on our kids. Try not to feel guilty. I've been there myself. Children are so much more resilient than we give them credit for & adjust much easier than we think they can. While some might take a bit longer than others to adjust, they all eventually have a wonderful time in preschool.

Looking Ahead:

Holbrook Fire Department field trip is on 10/16/18. More info to come soon.

Scholastic book orders will be placed this weekend.

Reminder:

School is closed on Wednesday, 9/19/18 due to Yom Kippur. Wishing an easy fast for all of our families who observe.

If you haven't already done so, please send in a family photo.

Back to School Night is Wednesday, 9/26/18 from 7:00-8:00. This is an informational evening for parents only.

Wear polka dots to school on Monday, 9/17/18.

Always feel free to speak to us about any concerns/issues you might have. We are all in this together & want your child to have the most positive preschool experience possible! Have a wonderful weekend!

As we get ready to kick off our 5th school year at Creative Kids Center, we would like to welcome all of our new students & families as well as our returning students & families! We are truly grateful that you have entrusted us with your precious little ones and look forward to a fun-filled and exciting school year!

This month we will spend time observing our students to discover their interests during play. We will also introduce many exciting topics, including the identification and recognition of body parts, letters, numbers, shapes and colors. In addition, we will learn to recognize our names in print and practice writing skills in our writing center. All of these skills will be learned through developmentally appropriate play-based activities.

We are off to a fabulous start! During the first few days we adjusted to the classroom routine, made new friends & reviewed classroom rules. During the first few weeks of school, we slowly introduce our centers to explore appropriate behavior in each center during play time. We read Mr. Cookie Baker by Monica Wellington to help introduce our pretend play center. We learned about how we use the toys in this center, how to clean up after playing with a toy & all of the fun ways to play during pretend play.

During circle time, we sang songs to help us attend to activities and stories. A few of the songs we sang included Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes, The Banana Song by Dr. Jean, Criss Cross Applesauce, It’s Story Time, Hello& Jump Up & Down (transition song). We read Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes (Eric Litwin) which was a fun introduction to our classroom This book helped us adjust to being at school. Sometimes we read the same book several times during the week. We answer questions pertaining to the story & practice recalling specific facts from the book. We are also counting our way to 100 days of school. Each school day we add the correct number to our 100 Days chart, then jump while counting to the number (3 days down!). Do you think we’ll be able to jump up and down 100 times? Only time will tell!

To end the first week we played instruments while dancing to songs on Friday morning and afternoon. Every Friday we will participate in a fabulous, fun Friday dance party!

Looking Ahead:

We are closed on Monday, 9/10 & Tuesday 9/11 for Rosh Hashanah. Happy New Year to all of our families who celebrate!

Saturday, September 15ish is International Dot Day! International Dot Day is a global celebration of creativity, courage and collaboration, which began when a classroom teacher introduced his students to the book, The Dot (Peter Reynolds). The Dot is a story about a caring teacher who dares a doubting student to trust in her own abilities by being brave enough to “make her mark”. What begins with a small dot on a piece of paper becomes a breakthrough in confidence and courage, igniting a journey of self-discovery and sharing, which has gone on to inspire countless children and adults around the globe. And each year on International Dot Day – the inspiration continues. We will participate in various activities including the reading of The Dot by Peter Reynolds. If your child has any polka dot clothing, please wear the polka dots to school on Monday, September 17.

During the next few weeks, our new students will paint place mats using watercolors to use during snack and lunch. We will all decorate our own birthday crowns to use during birthday celebrations.

We are taking a field trip to the Holbrook Fire Dept. on October 16. More information to come soon along with permission slips.

​Reminder:

Please send in a family picture to include on our “Family” wall.

If you would like to be included on our friendship list, please be sure to complete the form during drop off or pick up. A copy will soon be distributed to all families who have signed up.

Please turn in any paperwork that was sent home as soon as possible.

Scholastic book orders are due on Friday, 9/14/18.

We are closed Wednesday, 9/19/18 for Yom Kippur. Wishing an easy fast for all of our families who observe.

Back to School Night will be 9/26/18 from 7:00-8:00 p.m.

Please feel free to enter the classroom to help your child during arrival/dismissal, especially during the first few weeks of school. We have one teacher hold open the door (& prevent escapees) & one teacher who remains with the children. It is helpful if families assist children with finding belongings. Thank you.

​​Remember to ask your child open-ended questions about their day. This will encourage open communication between parents and children as well as help develop their language skills.